Child sex convict keeps life prison term after appeal win

Thursday

Mar 21, 2013 at 2:00 PM

By Dennis PelhamDaily Telegram Staff Writer

A Tipton grandfather said no thanks Wednesday to resentencing for his 2010 child sex convictions.

His current four life prison terms allow 61-year-old Delmar Lee Toth to apply for parole after 15 years. He risked waiting twice that long if the life terms were replaced with a maximum number of years available for his convictions.

“We have had an opportunity to have rather lengthy discussion in chambers with both counsels,” said Lenawee County Circuit Judge Timothy P. Pickard after Toth was brought into the courtroom. He asked Toth if he had agreed to withdraw a request for resentencing granted by the Michigan Court of Appeals.

“Yes, in view of what the outcome could be,” Toth said.

Pickard said the maximum sentence is life or up to 375 months if state sentence guidelines are exceeded.

“The Court of Appeals, in its decision, indicated a number of reasons for the court to exceed the guidelines,” Pickard said.

Toth withdrew his resentencing motion after consulting with attorney Chari Grove of the State Appellate Defender Office.

An Appeals Court panel ruled in June that Toth was entitled to resentencing due to some errors it found in his sentencing two years ago after Toth was convicted of abusing a 6-year-old girl. Toth was prosecuted 10 years after the abuse when the girl wrote a high school English paper about being coerced to keep it secret.

Toth was found guilty of multiple charges after a non-jury trial in December 2010. He was convicted of four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The girl testified about more incidents of abuse than what he was charged with committing. And an adult witness testified she was also sexually abused by Toth as a child.

“It’s clear that for the past 30 years he has been an uncontrollable pedo­phile,” Pickard said at Toth’s sentencing in 2011.

An Appeals Court opinion ruled that evidence of Toth being a recidivist pedophile who engaged in predatory conduct was a legitimate reason for exceeding state sentence guidelines. It found errors in some guideline calculations, however, and ordered the case returned to Pickard for resentencing.

Pickard said he had not decided whether or how to change Toth’s sentences but felt Toth needed to understand the possibilities before going ahead with the process.